The Government Accountability Office says that DOD does not have a good handle on the extent of “irregularities” committed by military recruiters. Says GAO in a new report, “Even one incident of recruiter wrongdoing can erode public confidence.” The Pentagon agrees with both of these sentiments and plans to create an “oversight framework to assess recruiter irregularities and to provide overall guidance to the services.” Of course, the Pentagon also agreed almost 10 years ago to an earlier GAO recommendation that DOD instruct the Air Force, Army, and Navy to link recruiter performance to the number of recruits that successfully complete basic training, not simply the number recruited. To date, only the Marine Corps does this.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…